The processes of globalization are highly complex and influence the multi-layered structures of societies: economic, socio-cultural, political, linguistic and education aspects among others. A remarkable increase in global migration flows, especially over the last decade, required from the host countries to pay particular attention to the provision of equal education opportunities.
Children of migrants, frequently not being (fluent) speakers of the official/national language(s) of the host country, need, and above all, have the right, to get access to good quality education. In addition, in today’s highly competitive labour-market, learning global/international languages (e.g. English) is seen as a necessity. How and at what age should children start learning an additional language (or languages)? Do bilingual/multilingual children perform better at school than their monolingual peers? Which language/education policies are successful and which are not? What challenges students and teachers face in a multilingual/multicultural classroom? What measures do educators, schools, communities need to take in order to make the multilingual and multicultural learning space more effective? The course Introduction to Multilingual and Multicultural Learning makes an attempt to provide answers to these and other related questions with reference to the latest research and discussion of different case studies.
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- critically evaluate various teaching practices in multilingual and multicultural settings;
- critically evaluate various language policies and planning programmes implemented in multilingual education settings;
- obtain valuable insights to better understand the learning needs of students in a multilingual/multicultural classroom;
- apply the knowledge you will have gained in this course, in multilingual/multicultural classrooms;
- obtain essential skills to deal with immigrant/minority language students.